ABSTRACT
Different blasting techniques are used for different purposes depending on the specific excavation requirements. Pre-splitting is one of the specialized blasting technique that is used to control damage to wall rock. Though there are other controlled blasting methods to minimise the damage to wall rock, pre-splitting happens to be the most suitable for all practical purpose. The purpose of pre-splitting is to isolate the blasting area from the surrounding rock mass by forming an artificial plane to limit gas and stress wave penetration into the remaining rock formation (Olofsson 1998, Scott et al. 1996).
